The Gardener's Journal is a free monthly gardening guide delivered direct to your inbox.

Each month, receive tips on the top jobs needed in your garden as well as a wealth of information on a range of gardening topics. From sowing seeds to picking fruit, each month get access to information on the care and maintenance of your flowerbeds, vegetable plot and lawn. As with your own gardening diary, the journal is split into separate sections, each covering a different area of garden care.

Friday 5 July 2019

Lawn Care: Questions & Answers

Q. I have just cut down a large tree 54"x62" in diameter that was hollow. The trunk is about 3' high, we thought maybe fill the centre with earth but what would be the best plants to grow that would in time cover down the sides of the trunk?

Monday 1 July 2019

This Month in Your Garden - July

"The hum of the bees is the voice of the garden." Elizabeth Lawrence


Gardens with plenty of flowers naturally draw in the honey bees. We need their help as pollinators and they need as much help as we can give them. They sometimes suffer from a drought of pollen from June into July.

The Lawn Care Guide - July

New lawn blues


A new lawn can often run into trouble early on for a number of reasons. There‘s nothing worse than seeing a load of weed appearing in your carefully nurtured grass you sowed back in April. Fear not, mowing takes care of much of the problem.

Lawn Care: Questions & Answers

Q. We laid a turf lawn in April and now there are ugly cracks everywhere. What went wrong and what can we do?

The Vegetable Plot - July


Spilling the beans


It’s easy to think of July as month when you don’t do too much in the vegetable garden. Depending of course on the size of your plot you can still be sowing summer and winter salad crops, spring cabbage and root crops. Parsley can be sown for a winter supply. It may take a bit of time to germinate – up to six weeks for seedlings to appear, so be patient.

The Big Glut Recipe - July

Aubergines in tamarind sauce with baked halloumi and saffron rice


By Sabrina Ghayour from Saturday Kitchen

Ingredients

For the aubergines
  • 1 tbsp vegetable oil, plus extra for frying
  • 2 large onions, thinly sliced into half moons
  • 1 garlic bulb, cloves peeled and smashed
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 3 tbsp tamarind paste
  • 2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
  • 4 tbsp runny honey
  • 6 aubergines, halved and cut into large wedges
  • Sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper